Though Surtis simmered in outrage stoked after a teenaged schoolgirl was gangraped on Friday, they thwarted the possibility of a communal flare-up by ignoring the call for a bandh on Monday, made by the VHP. The accused belong to the minority community. Shops and commercial establishments across Surat carried on with business, oblivious to the bandh.
As for the accused in the Surat gangrape case, one of them, Shahid, might be selling MMS clips of gangrape incidents for profit, said police sources apprised of the investigations. Forty-two unsavoury MMS clips, of which seven involved gangrapes, were stored his Shahid’s phone.
The clips were probably shot to blackmail victims and the accused made money from them, the sources said. The police did not rule out the possibility of the three accused being involved in a sex racket.
